Chinatowns in the Americas

Catalog description

Is there a Chinatown in your hometown? In this course, we’ll be relating to the histories and cultures of communities in the Chinese diaspora throughout the Americas (continental North, South, and the Caribbean), with an experiential focus on present-day Chinatowns in and around NYC. Holding a seemingly permanent place in the American imagination, Chinatowns are transnational spaces defined from the first by global flows of goods and people, but also continuously racialized by “perpetual foreigner” and “yellow peril” stereotypes begun in the 1850s, resulting in a civic or city space that makes visible (not to mention hearable, smellable, and touchable!) some of the contradictions of national belonging and global capitalist competition. You'll receive civic engagement (CE) core credit upon completing our course, which involves communitybased learning projects such as site-based research, language immersion, and mutual aid activities that can strengthen our campus’s relationship to our neighbors. (Note: All texts will be in English and multilingualism is not required, but students who are Chinese speakers may be able to design their own language immersion experience.)